Stopping Wiggins not UConn's only concern

TAMPA, Fla. - With five NCAA titles and nine Final Four appearances on his resume, Connecticut's Geno Auriemma knows a thing or two about peaking at the right time.

His Huskies (36-1) have been the dominant team in women's college basketball all season and enter today's national semifinals against Stanford (34-3) with a 15-game winning streak that includes four double-digit victories in the NCAA tournament.

Pretty impressive until you take a close look at the Cardinal, who have the tourney's hottest player in Candice Wiggins and a 22-game winning streak that's the biggest testament to how far they've come since a 12-point loss to UConn on Nov. 22.

"Connecticut in November, to me, was a machine. They played at an incredible pace. They were way ahead of us," said Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, who retooled her offense following the loss and has won 31 of 33 heading into the rematch.

"I'm really thankful for that game. Our team is too. By playing them, I think we've really improved. We actually made some significant changes in our offense. I think our team could always look at that game and just say this is how we have to practice in order to ever play them again."

Wiggins has been the driving force, averaging 28 points in the NCAAs and becoming the first player to score more than 40 twice in the same tournament with 44 against Texas-El Paso and 41 against Maryland.

Auriemma said there's no comparison between the team UConn faced more than four months ago and the one that's played its best basketball of the season en route to Stanford's first Final Four appearance in 11 years.

"At this point in the season, when you get down to the last weekend, the only teams that are left are teams that are really, really hard to play against," said Auriemma, back in the Final Four for the first time since UConn won its most recent national title in 2004.

"So to be able to sit there and watch a lot of film and say, OK, we can exploit this weakness, this weakness and this weakness ... that's not easy to do, because if a team had a lot of weaknesses they wouldn't be here. So what you have to hope to do is play to your strengths. That's what we've always done when we've been in this situation."